I'm sure once DX hears that you beat on it, squeezed it in a vice until the vice broke, boiled it, and then baked it at 250 degrees, they will be more than happy to return your money (normal wear and tear, right?). Sounds like you are getting your money's worth out of your new light: If it had just worked right out of the package, you'd have probably just put it on a shelf. Now you get to play with it all day.
Seriously, I hate it when they glue the parts together. Best of luck with it.
What's amazing to me is how patient you are Don because I would have pounded it into a flat piece of crap if that were me. I have what I call 'blind rage episodes' and when it happens, whatever I'm doing or working on gets destroyed. Then after that I feel like crap for destroying whatever it was because I realize that I just pissed away more money. Oh well....:(
It still isn't all that bright, but an LED and driver swap will soon sort that. Wonder how well an XP-G would work in there.
If I couldn't be horribly patient, or at least fake it well I'd not be able to do my day job. Actually, it is more that I'm good at faking it.
Some of the stuff I come across is just too horrible to let minor stuff get to you - I've been a pastor in a psychiatric hospital for the last 21 years and have just heard too much to let little stuff get to me any more.
I wonder if my HS-801 would require such punishment to take it apart. The moment it arrives i will try it for a min then it's going to be reworked completely. I was thinking (if glued) to freeze it overnight then use some strong pliers like:
Hoping to succeed by wrapping plenty of cardboard over the flashlight grip (to avoid damage) and try to unscrew the head barehandedly since i managed to pack some muscle over the years.
Btw, since mine is HS-801 and also 2 mode there is some chance that we have the same resistor based switch. It is moddable or it is best to throw it away and never look back?
HS-801 is easily dismantled. I found that KD version of HS-802 is much better than DX one. Looks the same at the first sight, but KD version is more robust (so more mass to heatsinking), easy to moddification and not a single part is glued.